Credit Monitoring
Sometimes referred to as Credit Surveillance
Credit Monitoring is the monitoring of your Credit Report in order to detect any suspicious activity or change in your Credit Report. Companies offer such service on a subscription basis, typically granting you: regular access to your Credit Report, alerts of critical changes to your Credit Report, and additional services. Credit Monitoring can help you detect credit related fraud and Identity Theft.
Whenever obtaining Credit Reports, or Credit Monitoring, such services are typically available either as 1-Bureau service (with data access to only one of the 3 national credit reporting bureaus), or 3-Bureau service (with access to data to all 3 national credit reporting bureaus). It is often advisable to see your data with all 3 bureaus.
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Companies providing Credit Monitoring will typically alert you to important activity such as credit inquiries, public records, delinquincies, negative information, employment changes, new accounts, address changes, etc...
If you want to Monitor your credit report, click above, or you can read on for additional information. When you click above, you will be directed to a 3-Bureau credit monitoring service provided by one of the three Credit Reporting agencies. Such service includes: credit alerts within 24 hours of critical changes, unlimited access to your credit report, powerful tools and analysis, and Identity Theft insurance where available.
Subscribing to Credit Monitoring with one of the three Credit Reporting agencies by clicking above makes sense because they typically already have your credit information on file (you still have to provide them information for authentication purposes). They do not share your personal information with us. Click above for more details.
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Key Statistics
• About 40% of Identity Theft victims took more than 6 months to realize that they are victims of Identity Theft. Data source: FTC / ID Theft Data Clearinghouse
• About 24% of Identity Theft victims took more than 2 years to realize that they are victims of Identity Theft. Data Source: FTC / ID Theft Data Clearinghouse
• Victims who discovered Identity Theft in less than 6 months were 68% more likely to incurr no out-of-pocket expenses than victims who took more than 6 months. Derived from: FTC ID Theft Report 9/2003
• "A key way to detect fraudulent accounts is through credit monitoring / reports...Electronic account monitoring is the fastest way to detect fraud and leads to lower losses " - Better Business Bureau |
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You can also start examining your credit report by ordering a free copy of your credit report. Consumers are provided with a free credit report once every 12 months from each of the three nationwide consumer credit reporting companies in accordance with the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act). Although this free report is a valuable service, since it is limited to once every 12 months, you may not be able to credit monitor your report on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. You may request your free report online, by phone or by mail. Online requests are viewable immediately upon identity authentication, while phone and mail requests are processed within 15 days.
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If you want a free copy of your credit report, click above. When you click above, you will be directed to the official service of the three Credit Reporting agencies: AnnualCreditReport.com, which will enable you to receive a free copy of your Credit Report .
For additional information, see Credit Monitoring Additional Information below.
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Credit Monitoring Additional Information
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Question
Who are the three Credit Reporting Agencies?
Answer
The 3 Credit Reporting Agencies are Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Their contact information is listed below:
Equifax
P.O. Box 740256
Atlanta, Georgia 30374
Experian
P.O. Box 9532
Allen, Texas 75013
TransUnion
P.O. Box 6790
Fullerton, CA 92834
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Question
Does Credit Monitoring affect my Credit Score?
Answer
No, Credit Monitoring has no affect on your credit score.
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Question
What is the difference between 3-Bureau Credit Monitoring and 1-Bureau Credit Monitoring services?
Answer
3-Bureau Credit Monitoring service (also refered to as 3-in-1 Credit Monitoring) monitors your Credit Report activity and provides you access to your Credit Report at all three Credit Report bureaus: Experian, Equifax and Transunion. On the other hand, 1-Bureau Credit Monitoring service will monitor your Credit Report activity and provide you access to your Credit Report only at one Credit Report bureau. As a consequence, 3-Bureau Credit Monitoring service offers more and costs more (but costs substantially less than purchasing 3 separate 1-Bureau Credit Monitoring services).
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Question
Is it a good idea to have Credit Monitoring along with Credit Locking and/or other services?
Answer
Credit Locking (Credit Freezing) does not provide you with alerts to activity in your Credit Report, while Credit Monitoring does. Meanwhile, Credit Monitoring does not block access to your Credit Report, while Credit Locking (Credit Freezing) does. It is true that once a Credit Lock is in place, there should be no new loan activity in your Credit Report. However, there could still be activity surrounding performance of existing loans, as well as new activity caused by any Lock removals (temporary or permanent).
A good analogy is a home security system. It is important to have a door at your house to prevent thieves from entering freely. It is important to have a lock on such door (and sometimes multiple locks), to make it hard for thieves to force their way into your house. It is important to also have motion detection sensors, in case a thief managed somehow to enter despite locked doors and windows. You can think of Credit Lock as the lock on the door and windows. You can think of Credit Monitoring as the motion sensors, and hidden surveillance cameras.
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